German lawmakers are demanding answers after a 30-year-old Afghan man with a criminal record allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in a Hamburg doorway on Saturday.

“It is completely incomprehensible to me how the suspected rapist, despite a long list of offences, was still on the loose and not long behind bars,” conservative federal lawmaker Christoph de Vries from Hamburg told Tuesday’s edition of the popular Bild daily.

“We need courts that impose custodial sentences on repeat offenders, or else the rule of law loses credibility,” he told the tabloid.

De Vries asked why the authorities in Hamburg had not deported him back to Afghanistan long ago.

The 30-year-old man, identified under German privacy laws as Mansor S, is currently in pretrial detention.

The 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped in a doorway in the city centre street of Moenckebergstrasse, which links Hamburg’s city hall with the central train station.

The man, who was very drunk at the time, is believed to have spoken to the girl at the central station and then followed her.

After the rape, he is thought to have followed her in the underground as far as Hoheluftbruecke station, where the girl asked for help, police investigations indicate.

Police arrested the suspect at the station.

Another conservative politician, legal expert Patrick Sensburg, told the Bild newspaper: “With repeat offenders like in the case of Mansor S who are going through the asylum procedure here, or whose cases have already been rejected, the judiciary needs to take tougher, not softer, measures.”

Scores of visually-impaired graduates and students on Monday protested against government’s failure to pay bursary and provide jobs, blocking the main gate to the Imo State Government House in Owerri to air their grievances.

The protesters, who alleged marginalisation by the Governor Rochas Okorocha-led administration, said the government was treating them “like strangers in our own state.”

Displaying placards with various inscriptions which depicted their grievances, the blind protesters demanded an end to what they tagged deliberate abandonment and marginalisation by the government.

The demonstrators, who assembled under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of the Blind, Imo State chapter, called on Okorocha to be responsive to their demands.

They vowed not to leave the gate to the government house until the governor addressed them.

Apart from the demand for special job opportunities for blind graduates in the state, the protesters equally demanded the immediate release of accumulated seven-year subvention arrears and bursary allowances for blind students in higher institutions.

The protest caused gridlock on the road to the government house, as security men manning the gate battled in vain to disperse the demonstrators.

The Chairman of the association, Christopher Kalu, said the state government had failed to build a special school for the blind which was promised the association seven years ago.

Kalu said “We visited the governor in December last year to remind him of his promise, but we found out that the commissioners are not helping matters because several efforts to get the governor to implement his promise through his commissioners are not yielding fruits.

“In January this year, we sent a warning note that if we come to the government house as a group on protest, we will not leave until our demands are met.

“Now we are here. We will not leave until our demands are met. We are demanding a sum of less than N4.5m. We are demanding that our graduates should be given job opportunities in our own state. We are not demanding too much.”

An unidentified government official was seen pleading with the protesters to leave the government house gate, but they refused.

The government official said the governor had taken notice of their presence and was committed to making sure they were happy.

In Kwara State, policemen on Monday used tear gas to drive off some protesting students from the College of Education, Ilorin.

The students, who organised the protest to address some alleged shortcomings in their school, said their lecturers were being owed six months’ salaries by the Kwara State Government.

They lamented that the non-payment of their lecturers’ salaries had negatively affected their academic activites and delayed their semester examination.

The students sang songs and displayed placards with different messages, including, ‘Pay our lecturers their six months’ salaries,’ ‘Maigida, are you not collecting salary?’

The students, who started the protest from their campus, marched through Ibrahim Taiwo Road and the Unity area before heading to the state government house.

Their march was, however, halted by policemen at the Unity Roundabout, who fired tear gas canisters to disperse them.

The students ran helter-skelter, covering their faces after inhaling the gas.

Business organisations, including banks, hurriedly locked their gates, while petty traders on the roadsides and passersby scampered for safety.

The Speaker, Student Union Government of COED, Ilorin, Mr Ajamiu Mathew, told PUNCH Metro that five students had been arrested by the police.

He pleaded with the state government to address the challenges of the institution so that academic activities would continue.

But the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communication, Dr Muyideen Akorede, said the state government had released N125m to all state-owned tertiary institutions as their June 2018 subventions.

He said, “The protest by students was unnecessary; government has made good its pledge to make money available to state-owned institutions.”

The commissioner explained that the state government used to disburse subventions to the institutions on a quarterly basis but had changed it to monthly in order to assist the institutions to meet their monthly salary obligations.

“With the release of the subventions for the payment of June salaries, the institutions now have only one month outstanding salary to clear, which is for July. The July subvention to our institutions will be released soon,” he added.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Ajayi Okasanmi, said five undergraduates were arrested because the protest became violent as the protesters started destroying property.

He said, “When the protest became violent, the police were left with no choice than to disperse the protesters, while five hoodlums were arrested. They will be prosecuted after investigation.”

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Speaking to our correspondent over the telephone on Monday, Deputy Director, Public Relations Theatre Command, ‘Operation Lafiya Dole,’ Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said necessary internal disciplinary measures would be taken against the soldiers.

He explained that the first step was to calm the situation and reassure the public of their safety, which he said the Theatre Commander, Maj. Gen. Abba Dikko, had done.

Nwachukwu explained that Dikko had visited the troops twice on Monday to admonish them over their conduct which he said was contrary to military discipline.

He said, “What has been done so far is that the theatre commander had visited their location for the second time today (Monday), I was there with him. He admonished the soldiers to be very disciplined and loyal and to ensure that whatever grievances they have are made through appropriate communication channels within the system.

“He has condemned the act as very unbecoming of them and is capable of rubbishing all their achievements in the theatre of operation.”

“These are the first step we would take to ensure that normalcy is restored and everybody goes about their normal duties without any form of anxiety and members of the public are reassured that we are in firm control of the situation. This is the first thing we want to do before we now apply instruments of discipline within the system,” Nwachukwu explained.

The spokesman had earlier in a statement said the troops misunderstood their deployment, which he said was meant to reinvigorate the security architecture of Maiduguri city.

The redeployment, he stated, became expedient after a recent assessment of the security situation by the Theatre Command.

“Regrettably, however, a few of the troops who had misunderstood the development and erroneously assumed it was going to negatively affect their rotation from the theatre of operation became agitated and reacted by firing into the air.

“Calm has, however, been restored, as the Theatre Commander, Maj. Gen. Abba Dikko, has promptly taken charge of the situation after addressing and admonishing the troops,” the statement noted.

It said that the Theatre Commander considered the ugly incident quite regrettable and “appropriate measures are being taken to forestall a recurrence.”

The Army urged the public to remain calm and go about their normal activities as the situation had been put under firm control.

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A 54-year-old, who claimed to be a professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Ibadan, has been arrested by the Oyo State Police Command after he fraudulently collected N1m from a man under the pretext of manufacturing animal multivitamins for him.

The state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, said the suspect, Olayinka Emmanuel, acted in connivance with an accomplice, Adegoke Adewumi, 53, to obtain the sum from Kolawole Kamorudeen.

He said, “The duo lied to the victim that they were manufacturers of animal multivitamins. Believing them, the suspect parted with the sum only to later discover that the so-called multivitamins supplied to him were grinded green beans.

“The suspect told police during investigation that the label was printed somewhere in the Oluwole area of Lagos State.

“Four cartons of the green beans branded as multivitamin were recovered in the course of investigation.”

Accomplice of the fake professor, Adewumi, said he went into the business in order to make ends meet because he was jobless.

“We actually used animal supplement to produce the vitamin, but we added green beans to improve the quantity for more money. I am jobless and that is why I went into the business. The professor is my boss,” he said.

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The Lagos State Government on Monday inaugurated the use of signs and symbols in banks, hospitals, police stations and front desks, anomg other places, stating such would aid communication with people with hearing impairment when they seek the services of the organisations.

The Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Agboola Dabiri, who inaugurated the project in Alausa, added that the initiative would also enable people with hearing impairment to express themselves in workplaces.

Dabiri said the initiative, which was the first time of its kind in the country, was part of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s plan to run an all inclusive government.

The commissioner said as time went on more sectors would be brought into the initiative, including public transport.

“With what we have created, people with hearing impairment can go to the police stations, hospitals, banks and other places and communicate with the people there through signs and symbols. This is the first of its kind in Nigeria,” he said.

Dabiri said the state government would improve on what had been done such as producing an electronic version.

The commissioner added that government was committed to the plight of people with disabilities in the state and would provide the enabling environment to make them comfortable.

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